Don Pardo’s face was not familiar. But his voice was instantly recognizable. We mourn the loss of one of the great announcers in broadcast history, who died on Monday at age 96.
The cast of “Saturday Night Live,” where he served as announcer from the beginning, celebrated his 90th birthday.
The New York Times obituary includes many great stories and appreciative comments from his co-workers over seven decades. “Saturday Night Live” producer Lorne Michaels said, “It was always exciting. Whatever montage we did to open the show, whatever pictures we used it didn’t really come alive till you heard him say it.” He promises a tribute to Pardo in the new season of the show.
The cast got together to record some commentary for the forthcoming DVD release, and spoke to Stiernberg. Some of the highlights:
Alley Mills borrowed a dress from her own mother for her audition.
Olivia D’Abo described reading the first script: “I just remember reading the script and being completely blown away, really just rocked to the core. I had never read anything like it. It was just such a personal, intimate read. Laugh-out-loud funny, moving—I think it grabbed hold of every possible emotion one could have, as a reader. I completely forgot about being a young actor reading a script. It was so disarming—it was such a disarming read, that I kind of fell in love with the concept of what the show was about. It was not really an era that I knew much about, but I felt like I just gravitated to it immediately.”
Dan Lauria is a real-life Vietnam veteran. The writers made his character a Korean War vet, and in one episode he gave his daughter his Army duffle bag when she left for college.
Fred Savage later became a director, and Dan Lauria appeared in one of his productions.
Here’s what’s at Comic-Con, which means here’s what’s coming everywhere else: affordable 3D printers with hand-held scanners that transmit 360 degree images to your tablet or laptop instantly. GoPro cameras. Google glasses. Even Oculus Rift, the totally immersive virtual reality headset invented by a teenager and sold for $2 billion that is said to be a literal game-changer (its first commercial use will be in gaming) and could change everything from movies and television to medical imaging.
And, once again, even more fan involvement in everything, the line between creator and consumer of content almost dissolving completely. When you have your photo taken with an alien chasing you, you don’t just get a print-out. You are directed to a console so you can post it to all of your social media. The new Ships of the Line Star Trek calendar will have fan art as well as the official renderings. And the new USA television miniseries from “Heroes” helmer Tim Kring, “Dig,” starring Jason Isaacs, has a virtual scavenger hunt set up at Comic-Con. If you discover the rune-like symbol they have hidden all over the area, you post a photo to Snapchat with their hashtag, you can win a chance to chat with someone from the show. And you can see prequel footage and engage with the writers via Wattpad.
I attended a press event featuring the people behind the new “Madagascar” animated series spin-off, “Penguins of Madagascar,” including writers/directors Eric Darnell and Simon J. Smith (reuniting for the first time since “Antz”), Tom McGrath (director of the earlier films and voice of Skipper) and John Malkovich, who provides the voice of the villain, an evil octopus. The film also features Benedict Cumberbatch as a dashing, James Bond-style secret agent. It takes place just after the end of the last film (not the television series), as the penguins need some rest after the excitement of the circus adventure. “What starts as a birthday romp turns into a world tour.” Like the Bond films, they wanted to have a series of exciting locations.
McGrath says he always envisioned Robert Stack as the voice of Skipper, and tries to channel him when he performs the part. I asked Malkovich what was fun about playing a bad guy. He said that “this one is quite fun because he seems happy, he’s lazy, not particularly profound or remorseful, and that’s always a pleasure.”
“Dig” looks very impressive, and the chase scenes they showed us from the first episode really highlighted the locations in Jerusalem. (They will continue filming in New Mexico.) Isaac said he took the part because “I get to run around and pretend to be cooler, tougher, sexier, and smarter than I am.” Anne Heche plays his boss (and sometimes more). “We wanted to make it cinematic, multi-layered, epic,” said the cinematographer. They used a 90-year-old lens to “embrace the golden light” in Jerusalem, and an up-to-the-minute lens for the “calmer, cooler, beautifully crisp” light of Norway to achieve the maximum contrast. Because it is a limited “event” series, they know where it is going to end from the beginning, no “art of the stall.” They warned us that no one in the series is what he or she seems and that we should “look out for the color red,” which is almost another character in the story.
The Memory Book — This Saturday on the Hallmark Channel
Posted on July 24, 2014 at 8:00 am
A budding, young photographer stumbles upon an old photo album chronicling the ideal romance of a happy couple. Intrigued by their love and unable to find her own “true love,” she sets out to find the couple and figure out if true love really exists. The film stars Meghan Ory (“Once Upon a Time,” “Intelligence”), Luke Macfarlane (“Brothers and Sisters”), Adrienne Barbeau (“Maude,” “General Hospital”) and Art Hindle (“Paradise Falls”).
